Captured
by PuReBLoOdaZn
Summary: The lioness has been captured, at last. Depicting her days as a prisoner to a snake's guiles. [The man watched her with relative fascination as much as a hunter would at newly acquired prey.]
1. Captured

Captured

Disclaimer: I disclaim!

White-hot searing pain echoed within the recesses of her mind. Her eyes were clamped shut against the unforgiving sun. It burned intently at her face. A rasp barely audible escaped her throat. Her jaw unclenched and her tongue escaped from her mouth. Try as she might, her parched lips received no retribution. They grew increasingly chapped and she flinched at her attempt to speak. The movement caused her lips to spread and crack. Blood trickled from her lips like a running tear drop downwards to her chin.

The sight stirred his interest and he caught the impending drop of blood with his tongue. The taste was metallic and he couldn't help but enjoy himself.

"I never knew what pleasure I could take from the taste of dirtied blood, " stated her captor. The prisoner's senses were left dormant for too long. The new sound startled her enough to cause an instinctive swat with her hand. But the action was not completed as she soon rediscovered the feel of metal impeding any efforts from her limbs. Suddenly, the idea of being rendered vulnerable through such means alarmed her, and she began to thrash about wildly. All of it was done in vain, of course; the chains kept his captive in place.

The man watched her with relative fascination; as much as a hunter would at newly acquired prey. His smirk spoke of smug triumph at being able to capture such a glorious beast. His sole concern now lay in taming her, but that would have to wait. The beast was strong-willed and had taken him a bit of luck to succeed in the chase. But in the end, his polished skills prevailed over her rudimentary instincts.

_The jungled expanse did more to hinder her step rather than help. At every turn she would be met with some sort of barrier. Each time she was barred, precious moments were wasted in struggling to get through. At one point in her stay, she thrived off nature's wonders, but now as she ran deeper into the jungle, she seemed to run closer to an inevitable doom. He was in hot pursuit behind her. She could feel the vibrations that followed each step he took._

_In her desperation to escape, she barely noticed that she had stumbled upon a pit of vipers. She stopped to catch her breath only one fatal step before reaching death's doorstep. As she turned around to continue in her route, she found herself paralyzed as several snakes wound their way around her ankles and calves. Hermione dared to steal a breath and calmed her nerves enough to reach for her wand. She was eager to continue on her way and save her life as she bloody knew it, but casting a spell would cause her to reveal her temporary location. Just then an annoyed Ursini viper showed its ugly and rather venomous fangs at Hermione.  
"Vipera Evanesca!" she exclaimed. Those two words compromised her location, and Draco smirked as he ran into the direction of the unnerved voice. He recognized the location almost immediately and knew that Hermione would have found herself knee-deep in vipers. That was a spot he took care in avoiding in fear of unecessary snake bites._

_By the time Hermione finished tackling the last snake wrapped around her, she came face to face with the devil reincarnate himself._

_"Malfoy," she spat._

_"Granger," he cordially replied. They circled each other, tense and wary of the other's every movement._

_"Expelliarmus!" cried Hermione impatiently. She was tired of circling him and decided to tread the waters a bit._

_Unsurprisingly, Draco deftly avoided the spell. "Tsk tsk, Granger. It really doesn't do you well to test my patience."_

_Hermione squinted at the blond who calmly faced her. "You disgust me."  
"Au contraire, my dear mudblood. It is _I _who should be disgusted with that filthy blood flowing in your veins."_

_"Your petty comments mean naught to me, Malfoy. After years of the same antagonization, I have learned to ignore them."_

_While backing up, Hermione almost stumbled backwards by way of a fallen trunk. She flinched in only half a second's time, but this was enough for Draco to take advantage of._

_"Incarcerous!" yelled Draco before Hermione could respond. Ropes suddenly appeared and bound her arms to her side before she could cast a counterspell. Her eyes were wide with shock but in a matter of seconds, her world had gone dark._

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AN: Uhrg, that was short, but sometimes a person just has an urge to write, you know? I don't really know where this is going, but I'll post it anyway. Hopefully I'll update in the weekend.


	2. Power & Responsibility

Captured

Disclaimer: I disclaim to everything that may cause me to be fined or go to jail:-)

The stench of blood could not be washed out from the walls. Each drop of blood staining the walls told a cruel story of someone's demise. Draco reveled in the smell and taste of blood as he walked down the labyrinth of halls in the dungeon. Perhaps in a past life he was a vampire; thriving off the life of others. Nevertheless, in this life he was a wizard, and a powerful one at that. It is widely known that with great power comes great responsibility, and if one neglects his responsibility, then it is the distinguishing factor of a good or evil man. Draco chuckled at the absurdity of the latter.

No one becomes evil through the mere neglect of responsibility. In fact, the most responsible wizards dare to be evil while those who are considered "good" become the men causing the most damage in the end. For example, "Harry Bloody Potter," said Draco and grimaced. Potter was deemed the savior of the wizarding world, but his life was abruptly ended by his own best friend, Ron Weasley. There was a time when Draco loathed the Weasley surname, but Ron finally realized the truth in the fight between good and evil and made the switch to the superior side. With Potter dead and his awesome powers left to rot in his grave, there was no longer a champion for the "good" people in society.

Thousands of disappearances followed the death of Saint Potter. He never realized the havoc that would be wreaked from his death. In that way, he had done the most irresponsible thing -he died.

There was a reason for there being disappearances rather than deaths. There was also a reason why more and more people found themselves in the service of the Dark Lord. They were both the same reason -Draco. As mentioned, Draco was a powerful wizard and the very epitome of evil. In the act of being selfish, he saved more lives than in Harry's act of selflessness. Harry's death provoked the death of thousands in the wizarding world without his protection, but Draco's instinct of self-preservation saved the fate of thousands.

Draco understood that even with the fallen Potter, the dark side would still suffer great casualties because of the massive number of people enlisted on the light side. He convinced the Dark Lord that by converting them, it would ensure victory. As it was, the Dark Lord still took many lives, but instead of killing, they all came under his service and lost their souls. The Death Eater population flourished even as the light side continued to lose wizards and witches in minor battles. But abruptly, the tide turned in favor of the light side as they chose a new champion to represent them.

It was none other than Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age and not to mention Harry Potter's best friend.

She had always fought valiantly; especially while Potter was alive. Following his death, her name was less and less mentioned, almost disappearing from even the most garrulous lips. The most accepted speculation was because she was too traumatized. The blows the trauma had taken on her heart had broken her. First of all, there was the betrayal of not only her best friend but her lover, Ron Weasley, and the fact that his betrayal had been established through the murder of her best friend, Harry Potter. Hermione refused to eat for months and would not leave the asylum of her room. Only her limp hair was recognizable. However, when she finally did snap out of her stupor, her wrath was profound.

Hermione had changed. For better or for worse? No one really knew.

She was more reckless and took on as many covert missions as was physically possible. There was a cold fury in her eyes whenever she deigned to massacre a particular group of Death Eaters. It was as though something in her had snapped. She no longer relied on the information that she gathered from books, but instead from the instincts she was born with. The combination of her inborn instincts and the skills she honed throughout the years at Hogwarts was deadly. Wave after wave of death eaters would be sent to end her killing spree, but it was all for naught. They would come in hundreds and surround her, but her sheer will and determination saved her every time. To Hermione, every Death Eater was Ron Weasley, and she mercilessly killed each one to rid, at least temporarily, the pain that permanently resided in her heart.

_"Harry has died," Remus said to Hermione after she retired to their temporary home after yet another eventful day. Her head had been buried behind a book, and she was comfortably lounging when Remus first walked in. He, of course, had despaired to tell her even after the initial after shocks had worn off. Hermione looked up from her book with a contemptuous glare. An aura of anger emanated around her._

_Her voice was cold as she said, "That's ridiculous. Ron was with Harry on that mission. No number of death eaters could overcome the power shared between the two of them." Remus walked closer towards her warily. He approached her with arms outstretched and palms facing up in a sign of peace._

_"Hermione, take my hands..." said Remus but Hermione moved to stand up and he sternly said, "No! You need to stay seated." At first, Hermione had thought it was some sort of sick joke, but she knew Remus would never joke about something like this. She looked up into his bloodshot eyes and lifted her hand to wipe his tear-stained cheeks._

_Remus broke down again at her small act of affection. He wrapped his arms around Hermione and rocked her back and forth. Hermione still couldn't grasp the truth in his words but she patted his back. When Remus noticed that Hermione had yet to shed a tear, he knew that she didn't believe him, and he had yet to tell her the whole story. Remus choked back his tears and caught Hermione's face in between his large palms to make sure he held her absolute attention._

_"We've been betrayed," stated Remus and continued, "By our own kind." Hermione looked up at him in surprise.  
"Impossible," said Hermione, "I evaluated every person myself before they committed themselves to our cause." _

_"Every _new_ person, "Remus corrected, "You didn't have the time to evaluate those of us who fought from the beginning."_

_Hermione pondered on it thoughtfully and agreed with a nod of her head. Suddenly, the implications astounded her._

_"BUT I honestly doubt that.." Remus cut her off with a finger to her lips. He wanted silence when he finally told her who had betrayed them._

_Without flinching Remus said, "It was Ron." Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head to disagree. She was about to open her mouth when Remus spoke again, "He betrayed us by joining the Dark Lord. But in order to join him, Ron had to prove himself worthy." Hermione's eyes had started to water but she still shook her head in disbelief. "Hermione, their mission today was a hoax. Its purpose was only to get Ron alone with Harry so that he could take advantage of him and his trust." A dam had been broken, and Hermione's tears flowed through furiously. Her head was now shaking side to side rigorously, refusing to believe him. _

_Remus placed a folded note on the table next to her before he left her side. His own tears had come again and he looked at her only once before closing the door behind him. As soon as it closed, Remus slumped down on the opposite side of the door too exhausted to do anything else. He lay there for several minutes with only his tears for company when a loud thunder clap interrupted his reverie. And suddenly a flash of light could be seen through the cracks of the door. Another thunder clap sounded, louder more furious. _

_The thunder it screamed.  
__Impatient to satisfy.  
__Commanding to cleanse._

_Splatter, drip the rain sang harsh  
__Rumbled the thunder, fierce with wrath  
__Howling did the wind complete  
__A cacophony and tremor_

_Hermione created a thunderstorm within the confines of her room to reflect the very emotions raging within her. _

_A black chaos was borne.  
Awaiting the pour  
Emotion: dread, fear, misery, desolation  
Then pain. _

_  
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed chapter 2. It's much longer than the first chapter, and I even added a scene I never thought about writing. The last part includes some parts of a poem I wrote a few months ago. Hope you enjoyed.

I'll update by Wednesday, I hope. I hope I get more than 5 reviews. :-)

Thank you for those two who did review though.

Next chapter: Hermione & Draco interaction?


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